Battery suggestions

[Frogger2662]

I am in the process of upgrading my charging system. 130 amp 3g altenator. I want to install a dual post battery so I will have a good place to hook up some extra wires. Size and type suggestions? What sizes will fit.
84 F150 5.0

[Gary Lewis]

I'm running an Odyssey Extreme 31M-PC2150 on a later F4TZ 10732-B battery tray.  That's the newer battery tray that is much better than the Bullnose tray.  And the battery just BARELY fits as the negative post almost touches the hood.

That's a Group 31 battery with brass SAE posts & 3/8 inch positive and 5/16 inch negative thread SS stud terminals.  And it has an 1150 CCA rating.

But I don't recommend the Odyssey batteries as they have a strange shape that standard battery clamps don't fit well.  However the later battery tray has a bottom clamping arrangement that might fit most batteries nicely.

[Frogger2662]

What year models have the newer battery tray?

[Gary Lewis]

The later tray came out in 87 and was used for many years.  Here's a shot of how I mounted it in Big Blue:

[ArdWrknTrk]

I see the group 31 is more of a marine/deep cycle type of battery vs the group 65 that is in my truck.

Is that because you're afraid youll wear it own too much while winching or running the compressor?

[Gary Lewis]

That's the battery that was in Big Blue when I got him, so I've stayed with it.  But I don't use that one for winching, just the aux battery which is an Odyssey Extreme 34M-PC1500.  I bought it to match the starting battery as closely as I could, but the factory aux battery tray wouldn't allow the height of the group 31 battery.

[ArdWrknTrk]

But group 65 fits fine, and is the largest listed by Ford.
I've never had a problem with the 850 CCA coming up short, but I get that you want AGM or whatever those are.

[Gary Lewis]

The PO threw money at this truck, and the battery he put in is an example thereof.  About as expensive as you can get.  And they are AGM.

Not saying I'd go back with the same battery, but that's what I have and I know they fit - but just barely in the case of the starting battery.

[viven44]

I've used Group 65 across the board on all the bullnoses.. fits really nice in the stock tray...

You may need to use a universal holddown like the one below
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FDXIK3I/?coliid=I3QH4RAUZ0A34H&colid=3IGQF00LDI4AO&psc=1&ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_lstpd_MGBEJ6VZ5K0Q9QTE6YGM

I had a group 56 on my dentside but recently upgraded to group 65. It was a tight fit on the dentside.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I didn't realize that it was Vern that bought that battery.
I only remember you buying the matching house battery, and the Cole-Hersee isolator.

[viven44]

That sounds like the kind of battery that was on my 1980 F150 I got from the same friend that sold me Big Blue 2WD. It had threaded studs, was massive and had 9 lives!!! He had pulled it from his semi truck apparently. Only had 600CCA left in it vs the capacity of over 1000CCA.... but it worked well during the time I used it. Started that 351m every time without problems.

[85lebaront2]

Gary, I will give you an interesting battery story. We had a 1971 Mercury Colony Park. It had front and rear domelights, and each door had a light on the bottom of the armrest. Open a door and you had 6 pretty bright lights.

I needed a battery, parts store told me they didn't have and couldn't get a group 27F battery "they are discontinued" so he sold me the biggest group 24F they had. About a week later I was loading the car for a trip, one or more doors and the tailgate open. Went to start it, battery was too low to crank the 429 with 11:1 compression. These cars had a Delco starter as the Ford rat trap couldn't crank them reliably when hot.

[Gary Lewis]

A 429 with 11:1 would take a lot of cranking.  And that was the days before the PMGR & LEDs, so you needed a lot of battery.

I'm happy with my huge starting battery.  As said, I don't know that I'd buy the same one again, although because I already have the fitted hold-downs for the Odyssey batteries I might.  But after the fiasco of the Horrid Freight battery charger failing and draining the battery I keep an ancient trickle charger on it when the truck sits in the shop for weeks on end.  This charger has just enough to keep the Cole Hersee battery isolator pulled in and both batteries at 12.7V.

[ArdWrknTrk]

This is the difference between a charger and a maintainer.

12.7 is JUST above the resting voltage for a 6 cell lead acid battery

But you'll see up to 15V when charging.
You don't want to keep that up because you'll create a lot of hydrogen gas, boil it dry and warp the plates.

[Gary Lewis]

It actually varies a bit.  The battery isolator drops out right at 12.70v according to my DVM.  Yesterday the voltage was 12.67 and sagging just a bit, so I'd bet the isolator dropped out over night and the voltage on the starting battery went up enough to bring the isolator back in.

The battery charger puts out around 600 ma and the isolator's coil takes up about 1/2 of that.  The various devices in the truck, like the dash cam which is always monitoring, are pulling most of the rest of that, so there's not much going into the two batteries.  However, I've not really measured it.

[viven44]

That’s my “Battery Miser” on all my carbureted trucks with the same short term memory loss problem as me

Can sit for months disconnected, just like on the shelf at Costco

[Gary Lewis]

Don't want to do that on Big Blue 'cause we'd be back in the Learn mode on the EFI each time.

[Frogger2662]

Gary,
Which efi are yor running?
I am thinkinf of installing sniper 2 later on.

[Gary Lewis]

I'm running Ford's EEC-V system from a '96 California 460.  Those trucks got EEC-V with MAF & SEFI while the rest of the world got EEC-IV with speed density and bank fire.  But the biggest draw for me was the OBD-II port on EEC-V.  That will let my offspring maintain the truck 'cause anyone can plug in a scanner and find out what the problem is.

[viven44]

Yep that’s why my trucks can live with short term memory loss.

I’m about to most likely acquire a 93 F250 with the 460 EFI very soon from El Reno, OK. Next week.

I can’t do that battery disconnect any more, I guess ?